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Chapter Two

Katie and her aunt made their way down the supermarket aisles, one by one, searching for each item on the list they had composed earlier that morning. It was decided at the wee hours in the morning that in celebration of the Singer family visiting for the first time in over five years that a huge family gathering would take place Thanksgiving evening. Therefore, that only gave them a few days to prepare, and Katie, knowing her aunt knew this was only the first of many trips to the market.

Just as she rounded the corner with her aunt in tow behind her, she caught a glimpse of a boy out of the corner of her eye standing at the deli section. Causing her to do a double take, she knew him, she was sure of it, however she couldn't quite place him. She made her way over to where he was standing, hoping that a closer look would help her recognize him. When she was only mere inches away, she stopped dead in her tracks. The spiky hair, the gray sweatshirt, the small padlock located on a silver beaded chain around his neck.

"Oh, my God. It's Eli!" Katie exclaimed.

"Katie, sweetie what is it?" Her aunt asked, noticing the shocked look upon her nieces face.

"Nothing, um, uh. I know that guy, and..." She turned towards her aunt. "Do you think you can handle shopping without me for a few, I want to go say hi."

"Sure, but why do I think there's more than you just simply knowing him and wanting to say hello?" Her aunt questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, there is, but I'll explain that later. I just don't want to..." Katie turned around Eli was gone. "Damn it!"

"I'm sure he's still in the store, just head in the direction he was. I'm sure you'll find him."

"Okay, I'll come find you in a few." Katie said and then rushed off to go find Eli, or the person that could simply be an Eli look alike. "No one else would where a padlock around their neck." She said aloud, convincing herself that it was indeed Eli. It had to be, and the thought that it was Eli excited her tremendously. Jessie would be so relieved and ecstatic to find out her brother was okay.

Katie rushed down the closest aisle to the deli counter only to discover he was nowhere in sight. She continued to the next aisle, still no Eli, just as she quickly turned the corner she smacked right into someone entering the aisle. "Oh, I'm sorr..." She began then looked up to see whom she had hit.

"It's okay, I wasn't paying..."

"Eli?" She questioned, she could see his expression change from an apologetic stranger to a confused young man that had no idea how this girl knew his name.

"Do I know you?" He questioned, as he racked his brain trying to figure out who this girl was.

"Uh, not really. We never met..."

"Well then how do you know who I am?"

"I'm a friend of your sisters, I saw pictures of you..."

"You're a friend of Jessie's." He stated.

"Yeah, we um, we became friends this past year, you know after you... Why haven't you called? They all miss you." She asked blatantly.

"I uh..."

"There's really no excuse for it you know. It takes two seconds to pick up the phone, and let everyone know you're all right. I mean, Jessie, and your Dad, Grace, Zoë and Lily they haven't been the same since. You don't even know about your mom..." Katie was rambling, she knew it, but all of Jessie's anger, and questions were taking over her mind.

'Wait, what about my mom. What happened? Is she... Okay?" Eli asked his concern evident.

"Do you really care?" Katie snapped, and then shook her head not believing the anger that was escaping her lips. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I just..." She could see that Eli didn't care about her explanations; all he wanted to know about was his mom. "She's okay, but she was in a car accident a month and was pretty banged up. She's in physical therapy now trying to get her strength back. All and all she's doing better than she was a month ago, but things still aren't easy for her.

"Oh." Eli said relieved to hear that she was doing better, but he couldn't help the guilt that resided in his mind. He should have been there, should have known about it before now, he should have kept in touch, he should have... He shook his head, knowing that those 'should haves could go on forever. "And what about everyone else?"

"They're doing pretty good, for the most part. I mean they miss you, so that puts a damper on things, but... There's a lot I could tell you, but far too much to get into here. Do you want to get together later, and..."

"Do you live here now, or are you..." Eli interrupted.

"Visiting for the week, I'll be going home next Monday. Why?"

"Okay. Then, yeah, we can get together later. Can you get a ride to my place, or... Cause I kind of need to be home tonight, so..."

"Sure, I can have my aunt drop me off." She answered, "I think I have a pen and some paper in my purse." She started shuffling through her purse, looking for something for Eli to use to write his address down on. She found a pen right away, but a piece of paper wasn't forth coming. She grabbed a photo of her and Jessie and handed it to him. "Here just use the back of this."

Eli took the picture, and stared at it for a moment. Jessie had changed so much in the past year and a half. "Wow, she's so... she looks so different, she's not a little kid anymore. So..."

"Beautiful." Slipped out of Katie's mouth and she instantly regretted saying it. It wasn't her place to tell Eli about her and Jessie's relationship.

"What was that?" Eli said, not sure if he had heard her right.

"Uh, nothing." Katie smiled nonchalantly.

"You said she was beautiful." Eli said, with a questioning tone to his voice.

"Well she is." Katie answered simply.

"You said it in a way... that..." Eli shook his head, feeling crazy for thinking what he was thinking. "Never mind."

He knew. Katie knew he knew. She wasn't going to confirm it for him though, that was Jessie's job. "Well I need to go find my aunt, but I'll come over around what 7PM."

"Okay." Eli said, "I'll see you then."

Katie stood outside Eli's apartment door, he had already buzzed her up but hadn't opened the apartment door to let her in yet. She waited for a couple seconds before she knocked, and wondered briefly what could be taking him so long.

"Hey, sorry. I..."

"It's okay. I've only been out there a couple seconds. You're elevators out, so..."

"Yeah, I know. I figured it would take you a bit longer to get up the stairs, so I ran to the bathroom, I guess I wasn't quick enough."

Katie laughed, as Eli shrugged his shoulders. He then motioned her to come in. As Katie walked into the apartment, she took in her surroundings. It wasn't what she expected at all. It was clean, beyond clean. It was in perfect order, probably not a single dust bunny around. She was half expecting a messy bachelors pad, not a... "Must be Carla's influence." She thought, and then shrugged that thought away, since it didn't seem to fit Carla, from what she heard about her anyways.

"So, do you um, want a drink or something? I got water, soda, uh, juice, and..."

"Waters fine," Katie answered as she entered the apartment even further. She watched as Eli made his way into what she assumed was the kitchen and began scoping the apartment out even further. There was a single line of framed photographs that sat upon his television screen, one that consisted of him and the rest of the Sammler clan, taken she assumed a few years before the divorce, considering how old Jessie looked. A picture of him, Grace and Carla, though Carla was only half in it, so it looked more like a picture of him and Grace. A couple pictures of him and some friends from high school. Who knew Eli was so sentimental?

Just as Katie was about to look at the last photo Eli joined her in the small living room. "Here you go." He said handing her the bottle of Poland Springs.

"Thanks." She smiled, and took a sip before moving over to the couch.

She and Eli sat down on the couch simultaneously. "So..." They both started.

"You go first, it's obvious you have something to ask." Eli said.

"Well, I was wondering. Now that I've found you, well not found you, cause it's not like I was looking, but now that I know where you are. What does this mean? There's no way I can't tell Jessie where you are, but if I tell her, are you... I mean are you just going to disappear, run again."

"First of all I didn't really run, I left. Big difference there, technically I was an adult, so I could come and go as I pleased. Secondly, it's not that I don't want to have contact with my family, it's just, it has been so long at this point, that I really didn't know how to have contact with them again."

"Okay, Eli you left without anyone knowing besides Grace, that's running, no offense, but it is. You can chalk it up to whatever you want, but you ran away. You ran away from your problems with your dad, all for what, Carla. You two could have worked something out. You could have convinced her not to run, but..."

"What's done is done, I can't change the past Katie, simple as that, and you know what, who are you to come in here and judge a situation that you've only heard one side of. Well maybe two, but not mine."

"I'm not judging Eli, but honestly, you've put your family through hell. Do you even care about that?"

"How many times do I have to say I care, until you believe me?" Eli yelled, his voice becoming lauder and louder as the seconds passed. "I screwed up, Eli's still a fuck up, what else is new. Maybe I shouldn't have run, maybe I should have known better, there are a lot of maybes, but at the time, I didn't see anything besides a life with Carla. That's all I cared about."

"Okay I get that, but still why couldn't you just call?"

"I called, I called a thousand times, but I hung up each and every time, you know why, because all I could hear was them telling me I screwed up again."

"But if your happy... at this point that's all that matters, so okay, you didn't want to call right away, but now..."

"But now..." Eli voice was still loud, and angry. Just as his let out the beginning of that sentence, the loud crying began. "Damn it!"

"What? Who is..."

"I'll be right back." Eli left the room.

Katie listened as the crying became softer and softer as the seconds ticked by. She knew it was a baby, but what she didn't know is why Eli was babysitting. Is that why he needed to be home tonight? As all these thoughts began to swirl around her mind just as Eli entered the room again holding the cutest baby. Who looked no more than six months old.

"Never thought of you as the babysitting type."

"That's because I'm not. I'm more the father type." Eli said, changing the baby's position in his arms, so her head was resting on his shoulder.

"What?' Katie asked, not sure if she had heard him right. "Did you just say that this was your baby?"

"Yep, she's my daughter." He changed her position again, so she was facing Katie. "This is Elyse."

"Wow, um..."

"Guess you weren't expecting this." Eli joked.

'No, I..." Katie was surprised as can be, and speechless. She had no idea what to say.

"She is only one of the many reasons I haven't called. Can't you just picture it, me calling, after they already believe I've made the biggest mistake of my life by leaving with Carla. Telling them that I knocked my girlfriend up only after a couple months on the road, and after our daughter was born, she up and left me. That the person I loved more than anything in the world, the person I left my family for, screwed me over. Used me, just to get away from her problems, and never really gave two shits about me."

"Eli, they love you. I don't think..."

"I don't need to hear from them how much I screwed up. Because honestly, my daughter means the world to me, and I'm not going to listen to them say how much I screwed my life up by making that decision to leave. I can't. I won't regret doing what I did, because if I did, it would mean I regret having my daughter, and I will never regret that."

"Eli, do you not know your family at all. Everyone makes mistakes. It happens. It's life. As you said before what's done is done, and I don't think now after all this time, they will be upset with you for leaving, or angry about..."

"But that's just it... I don't consider me leaving a mistake. If I did, then I would consider my daughter a mistake, and I..."

"Okay, not a mistake, that was a bad choice of wording on my part, but Eli... they're not going to care about the past. All they're going to care about is knowing that you're okay, and meeting your daughter. Don't you want that, don't you want your daughter to know her family, her grandparents, and her aunts?"

"Of course I do, I just don't think that..."

"Eli, just hear me out for a second. I think if Elyse hadn't been born, they might have been angry when they saw you for the first time, but now, I mean look at you. You're not the screw up anymore. From what I can see, you have you're life together. You have a nice apartment, which means you must have a decent job, a beautiful daughter, and... That's all they ever wanted for you, a decent life. Jessie told me about all the fighting that went on before you left, you seemed to have been misguided, no not misguided, but unsure of what the future held for you, all you ever saw, and all they saw was you heading down the wrong path. They wanted college, you didn't. You wanted music, they hated your music, and all you guys ever did was butt heads. I think after all this time they'll see that you're no longer the screw up. You have your life together, and as I said before that's all they ever wanted for you."

Eli let Katie's words sink in. It made sense, but he still couldn't see things going as smoothly if he did contact them as she made it seem. "Yeah, but..."

"No buts, I think it's time Eli. You should come back with me, even if it's just for a two-day visit. They should see just how together you are."

Eli snorted back a laugh. "Together? I am far from together."

"Aren't we all?" Katie said. "But seriously, I do think it's time. They need to know that you're okay, all the hurt and the anger needs to be healed."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Katie asked surprised.

"Yeah, okay. You're right. The past needs to be put to rest, and it's about time I grow up and do it." Eli said the words with confidence, but he didn't feel nearly as confident as the words made him sound.

"So what do you have to do, get time off from work? I leave Monday, so you'll need to get a plane..."

"Shit!"

"What?"

"I can't afford a place ticket, I can barely afford to pay my rent on time. There's no way that I can..."

"Well I could..."

"No, I'm not taking your money. Besides I'm sure it wouldn't be enough to cover a flight to Chicago."

"No I definitely have enough to cover it, and it would only be a loan, you can pay me back in installments."

"I can't..."

"Yes, you could." Katie said with her face sending the 'I won't take no for an answer look'. "So are we calling the airport to get you a ticket, or..."

"I guess we are."

"Good. Now hand over that baby." Katie said giggling, snatching Elyse out of Eli's hands.

TBC??? Let me know your thoughts!